Ricardo Gómez Pérez
Encyclopedia
Ricardo Gómez Pérez is a renowned Venezuelan photographer. His work have been presented in galleries through many countries such as France, Sweden, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium, United States, among others. One of his most notable artistic works is "Primeros Pasos" (First Steps), which makes black and white shots of his children, surrounded by backgrounds slightly out of focus. In the early 70's worked in Europe until returning in 1987 to Venezuela. He is still working with his partner Ricardo Jiménez, professional duo under the name of RICAR-2, specialized in corporate portraits and photographs for magazines such as Global Finace
, BusisnessWeek, Voyageur Magazine, Gatopardo
, Gerente, Complot Magazine, Ocean Drive
, etc.
and made his first snaps, which were printed later in issue #8 of European Photography Magazine. He hitch-hiked across Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In 1972, he He moved to London and bought a Nikkormat
. He studied English language and continued to work the techniques he learned at Bogotá. Later, he traveled to Zurich, where he shot his first series of photographs in black and white: empty landscapes with lot of snow
Trough 1974, he worked during the day in a vegetarian restaurant and studied at a part-time school called: "Sir John Cass School of Art", in London. There, under the guidance of Mick Williamson he began to build his first portfolio of photographs taken in Zurich. He worried about not having people in his pictures, so he started as a discipline, to look for a subject. During a demonstration of Teddy Boy
s at Hide Park
, London, he began to document their community. Those images were the beginning of a portfolio, which he presented to entering at London College of Printing
in 1976. Later that year, a workshop with Charles Harbutt
, at The Photographer's Place in Derbyshire, marked the road in front of his eyes.
In 1977 he continued to complete his research on the Teddy Boys community and to photograph them obsessively all over Great Britain. In 1978, Ricardo Gómez Pérez makes his first trip to Barcelona, Spain to exhibit "Teddy Boys in London", where he met Joan Fontcuberta
. Also, started the series "Encuentros", Flash Movement in black and white taken with a Leica CL
which he bought from Paulo Nozolino
at London College of Printing. The same year, he met Kim Nygaard and Ricardo Jiménez, and together they met Manuel Álvarez Bravo
, at Photographer's Gallery.
, Lene Lovich
, Echo and the Bunnymen, Ultravox
, Peter Gabriel
, and Ian Dury
. Gómez Pérez was also doing freelance photography for some London magazines like New Society, Campaign, Management Today
and others. He mets Andreas Müller-Pohle who asked him to be correspondent for European Photography Magazine. At that time he also met Richard Misrach
at Photographer's Gallery in London. Until 1982, he worked as a freelance photographer in London, particularly for Management Today guided by art director Roland Schenk. He began to do portraits of businessmen and editorials for several London publications.
After ten years in London he moved to Paris in 1982. There he met Graciela Iturbide
and Pedro Meyer
; and they exhibited together at Studio 666 as part of The Latin American Photography at Paris. Additionally, his various solo exhibitions took him across Europe, throughout Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Spain.
He lived in Tarragona, Spain in 1984 thanks to David Balsells and Chantal Grande of Galería Forvm. There they exhibited and sold his photographs extensively and took care of him while in Spain. Furthermore he was the curator to "Semana International de la Fotografia", in Guadalajara, Spain. After he went to Lisbon, Portugal where he stayed with his best friend Paulo Nozolino. Finally he decided to go back to Caracas, Venezuela after 12 years of absence, to spend time with his mother.
. In 1987 he began to work with Ricardo Jimenez as a freelance photographer team, which they called: RICAR-2. Together they had done portraits of many businessmen in Venezuelan Society at the time. They started to work for Revista Gerente, thus producing an extensive portfolio of portraits of the businesspersons who ran the country.
A limited edition portfolio was published in 1992: Memento in collaboration with Andreas Muller-Pohle, Joan Fontcuberta, John Webb, Philippe Scholz-Ritterman, Arno Jansen, Bernard Plossu, dedicated to the memory of a common friend: Derek Bennet. Later that year, Gómez Pérez was invited to Houston Fotofest'92, and again in 1994 (Houston Fotofest'94) where he traveled to Houston to attend the opening day of The Global Environment exhibit. He then received support from Polaroid
to work in black and white/positive-negative material, he then began a new series of nudes and portraits of women.
For 1991, Ricardo Gómez Pérez has his first son, Mauricio, with his wife Gisela Viloria. Two years later in July 1993, Samuel and Nicolás, his twin sons, were born. In 1994, consequently to the birth of his children, Gómez Pérez began a new series of photographs, the outcoming portfolio was called Primeros pasos (First Steps) and is made up of out of focus, black and white pictures of his sons.
In 1994 the first issue of Extra Camara Magazine was published; he worked as the coordinator to this quarterly magazine between 1994-1998.
In 1997 Gómez Pérez curated the first exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe
at the Museo Alejandro Otero in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 2001 he was invited by Pedro Meyer to exhibit his part of his First Steps portfolio at ZoneZero. At present, he lives with his family at Caracas, earns a living as a freelance photographer under the firm RICAR-2 with Ricardo Jiménez, and continues to work on his personal art work.
Global Finance (magazine)
Global Finance is an English-language monthly financial magazine.Joseph D. Giarraputo, the founder and former publisher of Venture, the magazine for entrepreneurs, in 1987 joined forces with Carl G. Burgen, Stephan Spahn, H. Allen Fernald, and Paolo Panerai to start a magazine on financial...
, BusisnessWeek, Voyageur Magazine, Gatopardo
Gatopardo (magazine)
Gatopardo is a monthly magazine established in Colombia by Miguel Silva and Rafael Molano. Gatopardo was edited by Grupo de Publicaciones Latinoamericanas . It has been recognized by the quality in its chronicles and its coverages...
, Gerente, Complot Magazine, Ocean Drive
Ocean Drive (magazine)
Ocean Drive is a magazine that reports on fashion, society, entertainment and celebrities in Miami Beach, Florida, in the United States. The magazine has been referred to as "the Bible of South Beach" due to its coverage of nightlife and VIPs. Suzy Buckley is the Editor in Chief. The magazine's...
, etc.
Career
Born on May, 1952 in Caracas, Venezuela. In 1972, he studied gravure, design, serigraphy and photography at "Taller 4 Rojo" in Bogotá, Colombia. He bought his first camera a Lubitel 6x6Lubitel
Lubitel refers to any of the several medium format twin-lens reflex cameras manufactured in Russia by LOMO.The design is based on the early 1930's Voigtländer Brillant camera with various improvements....
and made his first snaps, which were printed later in issue #8 of European Photography Magazine. He hitch-hiked across Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In 1972, he He moved to London and bought a Nikkormat
Nikkormat
Nikkormat was the brand used by the Japanese optics company Nippon Kogaku K. K. from 1965 to 1978 to name two popular but otherwise unrelated series of interchangeable lens, 35 mm film, single-lens reflex cameras.The Nikkormat SLRs were moderately priced, advanced amateur level stablemates to...
. He studied English language and continued to work the techniques he learned at Bogotá. Later, he traveled to Zurich, where he shot his first series of photographs in black and white: empty landscapes with lot of snow
Trough 1974, he worked during the day in a vegetarian restaurant and studied at a part-time school called: "Sir John Cass School of Art", in London. There, under the guidance of Mick Williamson he began to build his first portfolio of photographs taken in Zurich. He worried about not having people in his pictures, so he started as a discipline, to look for a subject. During a demonstration of Teddy Boy
Teddy Boy
The British Teddy Boy subculture is typified by young men wearing clothes that were partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, styles which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after World War II...
s at Hide Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
, London, he began to document their community. Those images were the beginning of a portfolio, which he presented to entering at London College of Printing
London College of Communication
The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, located in Elephant and Castle. It has about 5,000 students on 60 courses in media and design courses preparing students for careers in the creative industries...
in 1976. Later that year, a workshop with Charles Harbutt
Charles Harbutt
Charles Harbutt is an American photographer, a former president of Magnum, and full-time Professor at Parsons School of Design in New York.-Biography:...
, at The Photographer's Place in Derbyshire, marked the road in front of his eyes.
In 1977 he continued to complete his research on the Teddy Boys community and to photograph them obsessively all over Great Britain. In 1978, Ricardo Gómez Pérez makes his first trip to Barcelona, Spain to exhibit "Teddy Boys in London", where he met Joan Fontcuberta
Joan Fontcuberta
Joan Fontcuberta is a conceptual artist whose best-known works, such as Fauna and Sputnik, examine the truthfulness of photography. In addition, he is a writer, editor, teacher, and curator....
. Also, started the series "Encuentros", Flash Movement in black and white taken with a Leica CL
Leica CL
The Leica CL is a 35 mm compact rangefinder camera made by Leica with interchangeable lenses in the Leica M mount. It was developed in collaboration with Minolta and appeared in April 1973. It was released in the Japanese market in November 1973 as the Leitz Minolta CL...
which he bought from Paulo Nozolino
Paulo Nozolino
Well-known in the world of European photography, Paulo Nozolino was born in Lisbon in 1955. In the seventies, he lived in London, in the eighties and nineties in Paris, and recently he moved back to Portugal...
at London College of Printing. The same year, he met Kim Nygaard and Ricardo Jiménez, and together they met Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Manuel Álvarez Bravo was a Mexican photographer.Álvarez Bravo was born in Mexico City on February 4, 1902. He came from a family of artists and writers, and met several other prominent artists who encouraged his work when he was young, including Tina Modotti and Diego Rivera...
, at Photographer's Gallery.
Independent Work
As 1979, finished his studies at London College of Printing. During the final exhibit at that college, he met Brian Griffin, who invited him to began working together. They did a lot of work for British Music and rock groups, such as Iggy PopIggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
, Echo and the Bunnymen, Ultravox
Ultravox
Ultravox is a British New Wave rock band. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the late 1970s/early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic and New Wave movements....
, Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, and Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
. Gómez Pérez was also doing freelance photography for some London magazines like New Society, Campaign, Management Today
Haymarket Group
Haymarket Media Group is a privately owned media company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has offices in Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore and the United States....
and others. He mets Andreas Müller-Pohle who asked him to be correspondent for European Photography Magazine. At that time he also met Richard Misrach
Richard Misrach
Richard Misrach is an American photographer known for his photographs of human intervention in landscapes. His works are represented in more than fifty major museum collections around the world....
at Photographer's Gallery in London. Until 1982, he worked as a freelance photographer in London, particularly for Management Today guided by art director Roland Schenk. He began to do portraits of businessmen and editorials for several London publications.
After ten years in London he moved to Paris in 1982. There he met Graciela Iturbide
Graciela Iturbide
- Biography :Graciela Iturbide was born in Mexico in 1942, the eldest of thirteen children. She then married the architect Manuel Rocha Díaz in 1962 and had three children over the next eight years. Iturbide's six year old daughter died in 1970; after this death she turned to photography...
and Pedro Meyer
Pedro Meyer
Pedro Meyer is a well-known photographer based in Mexico. He is one of the pioneers of the digital revolution in contemporary photography...
; and they exhibited together at Studio 666 as part of The Latin American Photography at Paris. Additionally, his various solo exhibitions took him across Europe, throughout Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Spain.
He lived in Tarragona, Spain in 1984 thanks to David Balsells and Chantal Grande of Galería Forvm. There they exhibited and sold his photographs extensively and took care of him while in Spain. Furthermore he was the curator to "Semana International de la Fotografia", in Guadalajara, Spain. After he went to Lisbon, Portugal where he stayed with his best friend Paulo Nozolino. Finally he decided to go back to Caracas, Venezuela after 12 years of absence, to spend time with his mother.
Return to Caracas
He obtained a grant from the Venezuelan Culture Ministry to continue his urban landscapes in Caracas. It took him one year to prepare a 30 photographs portfolio. All photographs were made with the format Pentax 6x7Pentax 6x7
The original Asahi Pentax 6×7 of 1969, as well as the later Pentax 67 models, are SLR medium format system cameras for 120 film. It resembles a traditional 35mm SLR camera with interchangeable viewfinder and lens, but is considerably bigger and heavier, weighing with plain prism and standard lens;...
. In 1987 he began to work with Ricardo Jimenez as a freelance photographer team, which they called: RICAR-2. Together they had done portraits of many businessmen in Venezuelan Society at the time. They started to work for Revista Gerente, thus producing an extensive portfolio of portraits of the businesspersons who ran the country.
A limited edition portfolio was published in 1992: Memento in collaboration with Andreas Muller-Pohle, Joan Fontcuberta, John Webb, Philippe Scholz-Ritterman, Arno Jansen, Bernard Plossu, dedicated to the memory of a common friend: Derek Bennet. Later that year, Gómez Pérez was invited to Houston Fotofest'92, and again in 1994 (Houston Fotofest'94) where he traveled to Houston to attend the opening day of The Global Environment exhibit. He then received support from Polaroid
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
to work in black and white/positive-negative material, he then began a new series of nudes and portraits of women.
For 1991, Ricardo Gómez Pérez has his first son, Mauricio, with his wife Gisela Viloria. Two years later in July 1993, Samuel and Nicolás, his twin sons, were born. In 1994, consequently to the birth of his children, Gómez Pérez began a new series of photographs, the outcoming portfolio was called Primeros pasos (First Steps) and is made up of out of focus, black and white pictures of his sons.
In 1994 the first issue of Extra Camara Magazine was published; he worked as the coordinator to this quarterly magazine between 1994-1998.
In 1997 Gómez Pérez curated the first exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
at the Museo Alejandro Otero in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 2001 he was invited by Pedro Meyer to exhibit his part of his First Steps portfolio at ZoneZero. At present, he lives with his family at Caracas, earns a living as a freelance photographer under the firm RICAR-2 with Ricardo Jiménez, and continues to work on his personal art work.
Collections
- Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges PompidouCentre Georges PompidouCentre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais...
, Paris, France - Fotografiska Museet, StockholmFotografiska Museet, StockholmFotografiska opened to the public on 21 May 2010. It is a vital centre for contemporary photography located in Stockholm, Sweden.Fotografiska is housed in a former industrial Art Nouveau style building dating from 1906...
, Sweden. - Museum Nicephore Niépce, France.
- Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe HamburgMuseum für Kunst und Gewerbe HamburgThe Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof.-History:...
, Germany. - Bibliothèque nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de FranceThe is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
, Paris, France. - J. Paul Getty MuseumJ. Paul Getty MuseumThe J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
, San Francisco, United States. - The Royal Bibliotheque, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Forvn Gallery Collection, Tarragona, Spain.
Solo Exhibitions
- 1976: Swiss Landscapes, Battersea Arts Center, London , United Kingdom.
- 1978: Teds in London, Galería Proces, Barcelona, Spain.
- 1979: Teds in London, National Poetry Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
- 1980: Teds in London, Photographer's Gallery, Saskatoon, Canada.
- 1981: Encuentros, Novun Gallery, Hannover, Germany.
- 1982:
- Encuentros, Galería Forvm, Tarragona, Spain.
- Encuentros, Contrast Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
- Encuentros, Studio 666, Paris, France.
- 1983:
- Encuentros, Galerie Junod, Lausanne, France.
- Encuentros, Camera Obscura Galerie, Stockholm, Suecia.
- 1984:
- Encuentros, Nikon Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland.
- Nudes, Centre Culturel de Bretigny, France.
- Teddy Boys dans la Cite, FNAC Galleries, France.
- 1985: Encuentros, Galeria Visor, Valencia, Spain.
- 1997: Primeros pasos, Tijuana Cultural Center, Fotoseptiembre, Mexico.
Group Exhibitions
- 1978:
- Open Photography 1978, Midland Group Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
- Punks & Teds, The Photographre's Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
- 1980:
- Mouvement/ Corps, Galerie Viviane Esders, Paris, France.
- The Undecisive Moment, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
- Gallery artists, David Dawson Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
- 1981:
- New Work In Britain, The Photographer's Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
- Young Photographer, Rencontres International de la Photographie, Arles, France.
- 1982:
- Floods of Light, Flash Photography 1851-1981, Photographer's Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
- European Photographers, Rencontres International de la Photographie, Arles, France.
- 1983: Le Corps, Photographie Ouverte, Charleroi, Belgium.
- 1984: La Photographie Creative, Pavillon des Arts,curated by J.C.Legmany, Paris, France.
- 1985: Das Aktfoto, Muchner Stadmuseum, Munich, Germany.
- 1987:
- Le Temps D'un Mouvement, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, France.
- A Marginal Body, The Australian Centre for Photography, Sidney, Australia.
- 1988: Gallery's Artists, Galerie Jutta Robner-Kropp, Stuttgart, Germany.
- 1994: The Global Environment, Fotofest, Houston, United States.
- 1996: Kobe Fund, Center of Photography, Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics, Japan.
- 1998: Fotográfos Venezolanos Contemporáneos, Dubois Gallery, Lehigh University, Pensilvania, United States.
- 2000: Utopolis, Galeria de Arte Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela.
- 2003: Fantasía y Realidad Latina, Eye-See Gallery, Belgium.
Published Works
- Curated by Castellote, Alejandro (2004), Mapas Abiertos, Fotografía Latinoamericana 1991-2002, Spain: Lunwerg Editores, ISBN 9788477829423
- Nueve Miradas: Bigott en sus 80 años, Caracas, Venezuela: Fundación Bigott, 2001, ISBN 9789806428263
- Curated by Bracho, Edmundo (1998), Ten Contemporary Venezuelan Photographers: "De-Centering Visions". Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pensilvania, USA: Du Bois Gallery.
- Curated by Gómez Pérez, Ricardo (1997), Robert Mapplethorpe Catalog, Caracas Venezuela: Museo Alejandro Otero.
- Auer, Michel; Auer Michele (1997), Encyclopédie internationale des photographes des débuts à nos jours, [CD-Rom] Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Éditions Ides et Calendes.
- Watriss, Wendy; Baldwin, Fred (1994), The Global Environment, Houston, USA; Fotofest'94.
- Müller-Pohle, Andreas (Vol. 13, nr.3, 1992), European Photography #51 Gottigen, Germany.
- Borhan, Pierre (1990), La photographie a la croisee des chemins, Paris, France; La Manufacture, ISBN 978-2737702334
- (1990), 150 Years of Photography, Stockholm, Sweden; Fotografiska Museet.
- Müller-Pohle, Andreas (Vol. 10, nr.4, 1992), European Photography #40 Gottigen, Germany.
- Curated by Merewheter, Charles (1987), A Marginal Body, The Photographic Image in Latin America, Sidney, Australia; The Australian Centre for Photography.
- (1985), Popular Photography: Photography Annual 1985, New York, USA; Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.
- Auer, MIchel; Auer, Michele (1985), Photographers Encyclopedia International, Geneve Switzerland; Camera Obscura, ISBN 9782903671044
- Kohler, Michael (1985), Das Akfoto, Munich, Germany; Museum fur Kunst
- (1985), Art Das Kunstmagazin, Hamburg, Germany; Gruner Und Jahr Ag & Co.
- Lemagny, Jean-Claude (1984), La photographie creative, Paris, France; Contrejour, ISBN 978-2859490584
- (1982), Floods of Light: Flash Photography 1851-1981, London, UK; Photographers Gallery, ISBN 978-0907879015
- Naggar, Carole (1982), Dictionnaire des Photographes, Paris, France; Editions du Seuil, ISBN 9782020062886
- Müller-Pohle, Andreas (Vol. 2, nr.4, 1981), European Photography #8 Gottigen, Germany.
- Müller-Pohle, Andreas (Vol. 1, nr.1, 1980), European Photography #1 Gottigen, Germany.
- (1979) Zoom Magazine #6, London, UK.
- (1979), British Journal of Photography Annual, London, UK.
External links
- Ricar2, Official webpage of RICAR-2.
- RGP, Ricardo Gómez Pérez work.
- ZoneZero, Photos of Primeros Pasos.
- Noorderlicth Photofestival, Photos of Noorderlicth Photofestival 2002.